Participants in the Kansas winter wheat tour are finding less freeze damage than had been expected during the first leg of the 2013 event.

The tour started in Manhattan on Tuesday morning, when cars fanned out along six routes across the heart of wheat country.

Aaron Harries, director of marketing at Kansas Wheat, took a route from Manhattan to Colby along Highway 36 where the wheat looked very nice.

But further west in the much drier Smith County the group found thin stands. Harries says the wheat is so far behind that the freeze burned just the tips of the leaves.

Extension wheat specialist Jim Shroyer says the crop could still do well if it rains.